Heart of Darkness

Philly expat Matt Pond returns from the brink.

by Patrick Rapa

Jeremy Balderson

[ rock/pop ]

If you haven't been paying attention to Matt Pond since he skipped town for Brooklyn in 2003, let me fill you in: He's still got that voice. You remember, that suave and sandy knack he has for turning unassuming syllables into deep, catchy choruses. And, backed by the current version of Matt Pond PA, he's still making acoustic rock music that tugs at the soul. (For something twangier but just as charming, check out his other band, The Wooden Birds.) I caught up with Pond one sunny afternoon at SXSW, right after MPPA wooed a crowd with old favorites and new ones from the just released The Dark Leaves (Altitude).

City Paper: Tell me about the new album.

Matt Pond: What do you wanna know? It's the best thing I can do. You know, it's not like I'm not proud of any album, but this one is the one where we did it ourselves completely. I've never done that. It was me and Chris [Hansen, guitarist] mostly and we just slogged it out in a cabin. It was total isolation, really depressing, and great in the end.

CP: Where's the cabin?

MP: In Bearsville, N.Y. Everybody goes to cabins these days, by the way.

CP: That's the thing?

MP: It's the thing. I didn't mean to do the thing. But —

CP: A cabin's a good fit for your music. There's something rustic —

MP: Well, it's difficult when ... you're by yourself and you're just thinking about quitting music and you're trying to record and write songs.

HALF OFF DEPOT

Why live life at full price?

CP: You were thinking about quitting?

MP: Of course. I always think about quitting. I've been doing it for a while and you get like ... there are certain publications and websites that don't necessarily love you all the time. It's like, are they right? Am I wrong?

CP: But at the same time you're out there writing music?

MP: Yeah, well, I'll never stop writing music. At some point it'll just be secret.

CP: People always say it's bad for artists to read their own reviews.

MP: Oh I know, but I went to a dark place before I started writing this record.

CP: Is it a darker album?

MP: No, it's the most optimistic. It's self-critical but it lets go of a lot of the crap that I would let run around in my head. It's actually the freest record I've ever written.

CP: And you really might quit?

MP: I'm not doing it for a while. I feel good right now. ... I always like playing live. It terrifies me in concept but once I'm there I'm like, this is what I want to do. We played 20 minutes, before, up the street with The Wooden Birds. And that's just like cruisin' music, that's country cruisin'. And I'm playing a bottom-y midrange guitar, basically just tucking in with the drums.

CP: But with MPPA, the pressure's on you.

MP: Yeah. Then you turn around, it's like, oh, you thought that was something, now do this.

CP: Was The Dark Leaves a tough one to record?

MP: Look, if the recording process isn't difficult, you should make it difficult. You should sit on thumbtacks. If you think everything sounds great, then you're not — I mean for me, this is for me — then you're not examining it with a tight, thorough eye.

(pat@citypaper.net)

Matt Pond PA plays Fri., June 4, 8 p.m., $12-$14, with Wintersleep, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., 877-435-9849, r5productions.com.